


She Sings Only Truth

by Rainbow_Foxes



Series: FemJay Weekend 2020 [3]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Bruce Wayne's C+ Parenting, Cute Damian Wayne, Female Jason Todd, Gen, Good Parent Talia al Ghul, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Protective Jason Todd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:54:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26412967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainbow_Foxes/pseuds/Rainbow_Foxes
Summary: Written for the Fem Jay Week 2020 Day 1 prompt: Stayed with the League.Damian wants Faye to tell them about their father before he goes to live with him.She cannot lie to him.
Relationships: Jason Todd & Damian Wayne
Series: FemJay Weekend 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1919755
Comments: 12
Kudos: 173
Collections: FemJay Week 2020





	She Sings Only Truth

**Author's Note:**

> As stated, this is written for the [Fem Jay Week](https://femjaytodd.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr. Come check it out!
> 
> A note on naming: In Red Hood and the Outlaws (2016) #23, It's stated that Jason is named after his grandfather. in #25, it's revealed that Faye "Ma" Gunn is Jason's grandmother. It stands to reason that if Jason had been born AFAB, she'd have been named Faye after her grandmother.
> 
> A note on language: As far as I was able to find, "'Ukhti" and "'Umi" are used as affectionate ways of calling someone "Sister" and "Mother" respectively in Arabic. If this is not the case, please let me know and I'll change them to the proper terms.

“ _‘Ukhti?_ Can you tell me about Father?”

Damian’s voice is unusually tentative as he asks his question. Faye looks up from her book to see him standing at her door, posture stiff as always. He’s biting the inside of his lower lip, a sure sign that he’s thinking deeply, and judging by how it's starting to swell, he’s been doing it for a while.

She sets her book on the nightstand and pats the space on the bed next to her. “Sure Dami, come sit.” 

He walks over and next to her primly, back straight and hands folded into his lap. To not relax at all with her when normally he curls up to her side like a kitten? He must be very worried about this, and she understands why.

His whole life, his father has been painted as a larger than life figure, a hero from mythology made to walk in the modern era. Talia has made Bruce into the platonic ideal of a man, an impossible standard for Damian to live up to. And yet, in the face of this supposed perfection, he has a sister who refuses to return to his side. Why wouldn’t he be worried about going to live with the man?

She takes one of his hands into her own. His hands are small and much too calloused for his age, and while she can hope that they will be allowed to fade while he’s in Bruce’s care, she knows that’s not what will happen. Bruce puts up too weak of a fight when it comes to letting his children become soldiers, and Damian is too strong willed to take ‘no’ for an answer.

“What do you want to know?” she asks, rubbing circles into the back of his hand. He relaxes only slightly at her touch, but even the smallest easing of the tension in his shoulders is a battle won. Damian worries his lip again before he speaks.

“What is he like? _‘Umi_ has only told me about him as Batman, but not as...” He trails off, unsure.

“As a person?” she supplies, and Damian nods. Faye wants to sing Bruce’s praises and in the same breath condemn him to the deepest pits of Hell. But neither are fair, to her or to Damian. 

“Your father is kind, first and foremost. I don’t think he’s capable of being intentionally cruel; but he isn’t gentle. He will never sugarcoat things for you, and he _will_ lie to you if he thinks that’s the best course of action. He’s awkward with people, for lack of a better word, but good with kids.” 

Those are the easy truths, the ones that don’t stick in her throat and burn her tongue. She wishes she can leave it at that, but that would leave Damian to find out the rest the hard way like she did. So she continues.

“He has a strong morality. He will not take a life, no matter what — not even for you.” She swallows the lump in her throat. “ He will love you — and it’s an overwhelming kind of love that makes you feel like nothing will ever hurt you. But that love is conditional.” 

She looks Damian straight in the eye as she says this, and squeezes his hand before she continues. “He’ll take it away the moment you go against him.”

Damian’s gaze slides to the side of her face, and Faye doesn’t have to guess what he’s looking at. The long scar that traces up her left cheek from the corner of her lip to her temple has taken time to get used to. Talia refused to let her cover it, telling her to wear it as a badge of valor — _look at what I have survived, I will survive this as well._

She knows what Damian is thinking about. He had unfortunately been nearby when she discovered that the Joker lived, that Bruce was putting another child into the line of fire. He must have heard her rage, heard her scream and cry and destroy the room Talia had given her. He must be thinking about how he will live with that, if and when the same thing happens to him.

Faye wishes she could go with him, but Talia has other plans for her. She needs Faye to watch over Athenasia while she executes her coup-d'etat against Ra’s. Damian can be safely hidden away from the fighting with his father, but Attie with all her health issues? She could not so easily leave the compound they call home; not in the time they had.

She may not be able to step into the lion’s den with him, but she can give him a lifeline. She releases his hand and pulls the studs out of her ears for the first time in years. They’re small blue jays in flight, swooping with a grace she never possessed as Blue Jay herself. Faye drops them into Damian’s hand and closes his fingers around them.

“Take these with you, and keep them with you at all times.” Damian gapes at her with wide eyes.

“ _‘Ukhti,_ these are yours from when you were with Father. I can’t take them.”

“You can and you will.” she says firmly, “And do you know why you will?”

“No because I won’t take them. I don’t need —” She cuts him off mid-sentence.

“You’re going to take them because when you inevitably decide that you want to follow Bruce into his crusade, you will be doing it as Blue Jay.” Damian blinks at her, apparently too stunned to speak, so she continues. 

“I know I can’t stop you from doing the hero thing, despite how much I want to. I could steal you away to a little nowhere town in Alaska and you’d still find some injustice to fight.” She laughs wetly, trying to keep the tears at bay, “I can’t stop you, but I can protect you.” 

The earrings are trackers. They’re always active, rain or shine or six feet underground. Press one of the heads down and it’ll send a distress beacon. Your father has the frequency; so does _‘Umi_ and so do I.” 

She doubts that Bruce has bothered to check it since before she died. Otherwise he would have been there to dig her out of her grave after she activated the beacon so many times she worried she had broken the button. She wouldn't have wandered the streets alone for a year, and she would not be able to live here among the Shadows if he had looked at all.

But Damian doesn’t need to know that.

Said boy interrupts her thoughts by throwing himself into her chest for a hug. She wraps her arms around him tightly, enjoying what is likely to be the last hug from her little brother for a very long time.

He pulls away from her and sniffs, trying to clear his stuffy nose from the tears she pretends she doesn’t see. “Thank you for the honor, Faye. I will do my best to make you proud.”

She leans over and presses a kiss to his forehead. “I’m already proud of you Damian,” and she always will be. “If you need me, call. I’ll come for you.”

“Do you promise?”  
“Promise.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please let me know what you think by leaving a comment down below, all feedback is encouraged. Constructive criticism is welcome so long as we all keep it polite.
> 
> You can find me over on Tumblr [Here](https://rainbowfoxes.tumblr.com/) if you want to. Come talk to me about the Batfam.


End file.
